A tractor-based box blade is provided. The box blade attaches to the standard three point hitch of the tractor and is used to move and condition soil. Traditional box blades have rippers that extend forwardly at the front of the box blade for loosening soil and scraping blades at the rear of the box blade for scraping and smoothing soil. The rippers are generally attached to a fixed beam that extends to the sides of the box blade.
In some prior art box blades, the beam containing the rippers is rotatable such that the rippers may be rotated up, or stowed, so that they cannot contact the soil. These box blades have the limitation that the rippers are rigidly affixed to the ripper support beam such that the entire beam has to rotate in order to stow the rippers.
The box blade according to the present disclosure comprises individually rotatable rippers that are each rotatably affixed to a support beam. Each ripper may be independently flipped over, or rotated, from a deployed position in which it contacts the ground, to a stowed position. Eliminating the need for a rotating ripper support beam allows for the ripper support beam to also be part of the main structural support of the box blade, resulting in a stronger box blade with fewer moving parts.
For purposes of summarizing the invention, certain aspects, advantages, and novel features of the invention have been described herein. It is to be understood that not necessarily all such advantages may be achieved in accordance with any one particular embodiment of the invention. Thus, the invention may be embodied or carried out in a manner that achieves or optimizes one advantage or group of advantages as taught herein without necessarily achieving other advantages as may be taught or suggested herein.